Secret Intelligence, the Special Services and Intrigue 1900-1953

A Brief Note on Grosheim-Krisko

Hermann Grosheim-Krisko was employed as a Russian translator by the Swedish Legation in Budapest in 1944 and given a false identity as the Norwegian , “Henry Thomsen” . When the Red Army occupied Budapest, Grosheim-Krisko, like Raoul Wallenberg, was arrested by Smersh,sent to Moscow and accused of anti-Soviet activities and espionage. Unlike Wallenberg ,however, he was eventually released in 1953and turned up in due course in Stockholm where he provided the Swedes with further information while simultaneously claiming financial compensation for his years in Soviet custody. On the basis of an old file in Auswärtiges Amts Archive, new light is shed on Grosheim-Krisko’s family and background prior to his wartime years in Budapest.